Handling Non-Standard Sample Plates

Hudson’s PlateCrane and LabLinx are industry standard instruments for moving SBS-standard microplate around multi-component workcells. However, another best-kept secret about Hudson is our array of accessories that allow users to manipulate all kinds of non-standard “plates”.

The Hudson SOLO™ liquid handling robot is an automated pipettor that can do anything expected of a hand-held pipettor, perfectly. It is about half the cost of other laboratory robotics platforms and has options of 4, 6, 8, 10, or 12 microplate nests on the deck. The SOLO will fit into most biological safety cabinets, anaerobic chambers and fume hoods. The SOLO can be loaded and operated manually, but is also compatible with robotic arms from most manufacturers, including our PlateCrane EX. The small footprint and open design of the SOLO automated pipettor provides easy integration with accessories, such as heating and cooling nests, incubators, magnetic bead nests, automatable centrifuges, microplate readers and more. Our SoftLinx lab automation software has software Plug-ins to over 200 3rd party lab instruments.

Rugged and reliable, the Plate Crane makes it easy to automate plate feeding to any of hundreds of supported instruments. Many configurations are available to support your application, and it even fits in a standard hood!

Rugged and reliable, the Plate Crane makes it easy to automate plate feeding to any of hundreds of supported instruments. Many configurations are available to support your application, and it even fits in a standard hood!

In the following example, we carry multiple slides in an SBS compliant container and use a standard PlateCrane Gripper. The video shows the PlateCrane feeding Inova Diagnostics’ Nova Viewer IFA microscope system.

The next video shows our SOLO pipettor inoculating agar in petri dishes that are held in our customized nests

The following is one of many examples of customized PlateCrane grippers. This one is designed to move Life Technologies’ IonTorrent chips for Next Gen sequencing.

This video shows the SOLO adding samples to an Illumina PCR plate contained in an SBS-compatible holding tray.